The invention has for a subject a flexible device for coupling flexible tubes, to be rolled up on themselves. Traditional couplings have solid parts, and in view of their somewhat large diameter, considerably hinder the regularity of rolling them up, being given that the tubes are placed flat.
The flexible device, according to the invention, permits remedying this disadvantage and introduces the following advantages: flexibility, correct rolling up, increased space, improved efficacy, no joint to change, and the assembly does not undergo the classical shocks from handling. Made of sheet rubber, it is light, and does not damage the tubes when they are rolled up.
The invention therefore has for a subject a flexible assembly designed for coupling flexible tubes comprising a sleeve designed to receive the ends of two tubes to be coupled and provided with assembly means designed to cooperate with complementary assembly means carried by the ends of said tubes, characterized in that the assembly means of the sleeve have an annular chamber arranged in the internal wall of the sleeve, and the edges of which form shoulders with reflex angles giving to it, in axial section, a dovetailed profile, and in that the complementary assembly means carried by the tubes to be coupled are made up of tubular stops permanently attached onto the ends of the tubes, the stops having an outer diameter corresponding to the inner diameter of the annular chamber arranged in the sleeve and at least their edge designed to cooperate with the shoulder with the corresponding reflex angle of the chamber having a complementary inclined profile of that of the shoulder with the reflex angle, and in that the length of the annular chamber is greater than the sum of the lengths of the fixed stops on the tubes to be coupled.
According to one particular characteristic of the invention, the two edges of each of the stops have identical profiles in the form of inner chamfered edges, and the chamfered edges opposite to chamfered edges engaged in the shoulders with reflex angles of the annular chamber define a cavity with the portion of the corresponding inner wall of the annular chamber, permitting, under the effect of pressure, exerting on the lips formed by the chamfered edges an axial thrust on the stops and the tubes to which they are coupled and favoring the encasing of the edge of the stops in the shoulders with reflex angles of the annular chamber, and a radial thrust improving the tight seal.
A guiding line is drawn on the tubes downstream of the stops so as to proceed without hesitation in coupling manipulations.
The coupling process consists of the following steps in chronological order:
the end of each tube furnished with a stop is placed flat, folded in half in the longitudinal direction, then introduced into the sleeve held cylindrical, up to the guiding line for positioning the sleeve, PA1 the assembly is placed flat to better match the contours of the stop with those of the cavity of the sleeve, then is pulled back and forth to clamp the dovetail encasing.